Plasmonic Eyeglasses Based on Gold Nanoparticles for Color Vision Deficiency Management

Color vision deficiency (CVD), or color blindness, is a common ocular disorder that prohibits the recognition of different colors, from which many people suffer worldwide (8–10% of males and 0.4–0.5% of females). Despite numerous efforts, no definitive cure for color blindness has yet been discovered, but many color filter-based aids such as tinted glasses and contact lenses have been developed to help color blind people. This work is the first to fabricate plasmonic eyeglasses based on gold nanoparticles using two innovative methods, i.e., the simple self-assembly technique and heat treatment of gold thin films, and to evaluate them for color blindness management. The proposed plasmonic eyeglasses were simulated using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method, and a good agreement between experimental and simulation results was obtained. The proposed plasmonic eyeglasses based on gold nanoparticles are more selective than commercial Enchroma and VINO glasses because of the tunability of plasmonic properties of gold NPs by controlling their morphology, which provides insights for applications of color vision deficiency improvement.